This invention relates to a cooling system for controlled start transmission gear reducers, and other industrial equipment where cooling of portions of same are desirable. Controlled start transmission gear reducers utilize controlled braking of the reaction member of a differential gear reducer under the command of a closed loop control system to provide precisely controlled acceleration of high inertial loads. Such reducers are particularly well suited to the power requirements of long belt conveyors where gradual acceleration is desired to minimize belt stress and shock to the mechanical components such as gears, bearings, keys, shafts, couplings, pulleys, splices and other structural members.
Frequent starts of such systems, utilizing the controlled start transmission gear reducer, generates heat in the clutch disk at the output shaft end of the reducer. Cooling of the clutch disk during the operation of the gear reduce is thus very desirable, if not required.
Controlled start transmission gear reducers, as manufactured by The Dodge Division of Reliance Electric Company, Greenville, S.C. include the input shaft located in either the three o'clock position or the nine o'clock position on the input end of the gear reducer. Moreover, such gear reducers are convertible from one position to the other in the field. In either position, the gear reducer must be able to operate in either the clockwise or the counter-clockwise direction. Such requirements dictate a cooling system that is capable of cooling the clutch disk regardless of position the input shaft and regardless of rotational direction of the input shaft.
Conventionally, the gear reducers as noted above, as well as other drive apparatus have utilized an enclosure through which cooling air passed. When, however, fan location or rotational direction is changed, a general decrease in air flow efficiency is present for prior enclosures or shrouds were generally designed with one particular air flow pattern in mind. The present invention overcomes the inefficiencies of prior devices and is equally efficient, regardless of location of the fan or direction of fan rotation.